Fall 1980 - Riding the wave of
follow-up smash single Holiday in Cambodia ,
Dead Kennedys release debut album Fresh
Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. They are the first
non-major label U.S. punk band to successfully tour England and
Europe. Many people Biafra meet are rabidly curious about what else
lurks musically in the United States. The "punk is dead" media and
the U.K. record labels don't care. Biafra records The Witch
Trials improvisational EP with Christian Lunch,
Adrian Borland (late of The Sound and
other friends in an apartment in London.

Spring 1981 -
Alternative Tentacles re-launched with Let Them Eat Jellybeans
compilation album, designed to introduce Europe and the world at
large to D.O.A., Black Flag, Flipper, Bad Brains, Half Japanese and
even Voice Farm, among many more. The European underground is never
the same again. Hardcore punk breaks out and spreads throughout the
industrialized world.

Also released is the Too Drunk to
Fuck single, featuring new drummer D.H. Peligro. The British
tabloid press goes ballistic, some store owners are arrested.
Industry fears rise that the single will reach the top 30 of the
national charts and thus mandate a performance of the song on
BBC-TV's "Top of the Pops". It peaks at #31.

...Jellybeans
helps create the same effect in the United States. Black Flag and
D.O.A. stitch together national tours, while the biggest splash is
the east coast return of Dead Kennedys. Jaded New York music press
dismisses DK's all ages matinee at Bond's as a "cheap gimmick."
Several generations of artists later report that being at that show
was the baptism that made them want to start a band. New York and
the East Coast are never the same.

Fall 1981 - Dead
Kennedys release In God We Trust, Inc. EP and Nazi Punks Fuck Off
single. The music is faster and more extreme, reflecting
the youthful hardcore energy coming out of California and
Washington, D.C. Lyrics and packaging are gut-rage responses to the
rise of the religious right, violence in the underground scene and
the "election" of Ronald Reagan. Almost every "dire exaggeration"
in the lyrics has since come true.

More touring in Britain and
Europe follows, with particularly wild shows in Italy and Finland.
D.I.Y. hardcore EPs mushroom in these countries a few months
later.

Spring-Summer 1982 - U.S. hardcore
explosion in full swing. Legwork by Black Flag, Dead
Kennedys, D.O.A. and Minor Threat
establishes solid nationwide touring network through D.I.Y.
underground promoters who completely avoid the still hostile music
establishment. Harassment by police was an increasing problem.
Denver cops try to confiscate the band's equipment, but give up when
asked to carry the amps themselves.

Alternative Tentacles
continues to grow and penetrate with classic releases by
D.O.A., T.S.O.L., 7 Seconds; and in the U.K.,
Bad Brains and Husker Du.

Fall, 1982 - Dead Kennedys release second full- length,
Plastic Surgery Disasters to decidedly mixed
reviews. For the third time in a row fans are confronted with
different sounds than they expected. Another Euro-visit follows,
this time concentrating on Germany.

1983 - Places
to go, people to annoy. U.S. touring for Plastic Surgery
Disasters culminates in Rock Against Reagan on the capitol mall in
D.C. one day before the infamous 4th of July James Watt concert
(Beach Boys cancelled in favor of Wayne Newton). Under clear skies
a U.S. government helicopter floodlights DK's audience and
photographs them when their faces look up. Torrential rains the
next day delay Wayne Newton concert for several hours. Dead Kennedys
also crack open Australia, finding a much more diverse scene than
narrow-minded macho U.S. hardcore audiences will allow. Most
bizarre of all is Adelaide's Grong Grong, whose singer screams at
the audience wearing a balaklava and a cowboy hat. Their album is
later released on Alternative Tentacles. The Aussies take on
Detroit/garage rock is at its peak, and Biafra absorbs their sounds
accordingly, being possibly the first person to bring their records
into the United States.

1984 - More live
mayhem brings Dead Kennedys to guerrilla performances outside both
the Democratic and Republican National conventions. Republicans in
Dallas are greeted by Biafra-led crowd chanting "Fuck off and die!"
as they flee the hall for their hotel rooms. A mass die-in at
Nieman-Marcus and the notorious Joey Johnson flag burning case that
wound up in the Supreme Court add to the festivities. At the
Democratic convention Dead Kennedys take the stage in Klansman
hoods, then remove them to reveal Ronald Reagan masks underneath. A
thousand people break away from the crowd to march on San Francisco
City Hall, where they are beaten senseless by out-of-control police
officers.

1985 - Dead Kennedys reaffirm
their place at the front of the underground musical vanguard with
the release of the Frankenchrist album (possibly Biafra's favorite).
Again, not what people expected. A poster insert by Swiss
surrealist master H.R. Giger will soon prove very controversial.

1985 - Infamous Senate anti-music hearings
are staged by Senator Al Gore and his cohorts as a favor to his wife
Tipper and her openly bigoted fundamentalist friends calling
themselves the Parent's Music Resource Center (PMRC). Among the
PMRC's demands were the censorship through a labeling system of
warning stickers, the "Reassessment of contracts" of artists whose
lyrics are, "sexually explicit", "anti-Christian" or mention suicide
or homosexuality. "Expert witnesses" called by the Washington Wives
blame rock music for gang violence, suicide, murder, devil worship
and sexual perversion. Frank Zappa was one of the first to
oppose the PMRC and sense their significance, as was none other than John Denver(!) and Dee Snider (Twisted Sister). The music
industry above and below ground keeps their head in the sand,
preferring to sleep through the hearings.